


Changeling

by mercuriallyCooperative



Category: Princess Principal (Anime)
Genre: Changeling AU, F/F, Gen, Spoilers, fair folk au, i have no idea how to tag this, spoilers is literally the definition of this fic, tags will be added as necessary?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 14:57:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15731748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercuriallyCooperative/pseuds/mercuriallyCooperative
Summary: It's an old story. All the children of our Winter Kingdom learn it. It's a story that dates back, back, thousands of thousands of years, back to the Hundred Years War. And I'll tell it now to you.





	Changeling

**Author's Note:**

> This is technically a crossover with my own original setting. You don't really need the context, all you really need to know is that changelings and the fair folk and magic are a thing. But this all started from a Tumblr [post.](https://mercuriallycooperative.tumblr.com/post/177087738746/rescue-and-adoption)
> 
> And then I realized I had a pre-existing story that Ange and Charlotte could so perfectly enact their own rendition of. It can be found here: [On the Evening I Was Leaving](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/land-of-dreams-and-winter-mcooperatives-idea-thread.47931/#post-11205337) 
> 
> Finally, for a bit more of an idea of my rendition of changelings, if you want it: [This Dawn Which I Have Shed](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/land-of-dreams-and-winter-mcooperatives-idea-thread.47931/#post-11205354)

(i)

 

“ _Changelings are a particular race of fae, like brownies or goblins or fairies or the fair folk - they have blood that runs grey with silver, in their ordinary form. They have wild teeth that pin like needles, and wide eyes that gleam with interest, too-bright and faintly glowing, the whites metallic silver and the irises a vivid green. Their skin is silvery white and transparent; you can see their veins beneath, delicate and pulsing. Their hair falls heavy and dry, a pale grey mane. They stand on average taller than humans, when they’re grown, tall and spindly. Their arms and legs look too-thin and bone-like, ribcages too narrow but never starved. They’re like a child’s picture of a human. Their faces, though- they are fully human-seeming, more even than their fae counterparts- soft or square jawed or angular, cut in silvery marble, while a ghost’s eyes and a demon’s teeth make their home._ ”

\- October 6th, 2016, “The Long Work - Notes on Changelings”

***

Charlotte is six years old and fifth in line for the throne when she cannot bear it anymore.

She is alone. 

She is the first of the noble children this century, the others far older, louder, and _below her station_ as she overhears her parents discuss with each other. Her nurses and tutors are sympathetic- but they are also meant to take ownership of all her hours.

***

(They mean well. Her nurses, tutors, parents.

“We can protect her, here, on the palace grounds.”

“If we keep her busy, she may not notice the lack of companions.”

“She’s so clever- she’ll be able to accomplish so much so early!” 

“The other children her age are all human. Their parents didn’t want to risk them here. You and I… we grew up with human friends, before we came home. I would spare her that. They live so short a time.”

They mean well.

Charlotte is no less alone.)

***

Etiquette and manners, language and music. Magic, horseback riding, dance, history, literature, art. 

Day in and day out, that is all she practices. She is fondest of air magic, the feel of the wind, the moment when gravity loses sway over her for just a moment. But she is not old enough, not powerful enough yet, for flight. Even that freedom is denied to her. 

*** 

(She imagines in her few spare moments, in the time before sleeping, that she can soar on great wings. She has heard that the Winter Kingdom has many more dragons than they do here in the Summer Country. She has never met one.

She dreams of black scales and an endless sky.)


End file.
